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Help with using a transistor for a beginner

Arduino and Raspberry Pi

I am using an Arduino and I want to power an external device.  As I understand it the most I can output from the Arduino is 5v and 500ma.  I need to increase this to 12v and 5a.  It has been suggested that I can do this by running through a transistor.

Can anyone please advise if this is correct and what transistor I should use for this application.

Thanks, Daniel.

Sourav Gupta

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Transistor is a current control device. DO not use it for 12V 5A. Insted, use a power mosfet.

   Joined February 12, 2018      696
Monday at 02:11 PM

John mckenney

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To that end, I tried a regular audio amp single transistor circuit and it didn’t seem that loud. Is power mosfet a better Transistor to do these basic circuits?  Not ready to work with op amps yet. 

   Joined May 12, 2019      1
Sunday at 06:57 AM

Daniel Howden

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Hi Sourav, thanks for the reply.  Is there a type of MOSFET that would be best to use?

 

Thanks, Daniel.

   Joined May 10, 2019      1
Friday at 11:26 PM